9 environmental groups joining forces in Livingston County area

Shown from left Monday, May 14, 2018, Dick Russell of the Friends of Highland State Recreation Area, Debbie Stempien of Recycle Livingston, Lee Burton, chair of the Crossroads group of the Sierra Club, Karen Pierce of the Crossroads group and John Wilson of Friends of Island Lake State Recreation Area are among the Livingston Area Environmental Coalition, providing strength in numbers to environmental groups.(Photo: Gillis Benedict/Livingston Daily)

Leaders of a newly formed environmental coalition want to capture the attention of nature-lovers, environmentalists and people looking for volunteer opportunities in Livingston County and neighboring communities.

The nine organizations that teamed up to form the Livingston Area Environmental Coalition are working to promote each other's recreational opportunities, volunteer programs and activities.

"It is environmentally-minded groups in the Livingston County area, so that is kind of the loose umbrella," said Karen Pierce, a leadership member of the Crossroads Group of the Sierra Club and the person who came up with the idea to form a coalition.

The purpose of the coalition, officially formed last month, is for the organizations to help each other promote events, increase membership numbers and increase public participation in nature outings, service days and other programs.

While each organization has its own mission and focus, such as nature education, state parks or political activism, they have things in common, according to Pierce.

"The Howell Nature Center has a very different mission than the Crossroads Group of the Sierra Club or the Friends of Highland State Recreation Area, and yet they are all interrelated," she said. "All of the organizations need more public participation, more volunteers and to boost public awareness."

Members of the Livingston Area Environmental Coalition are:

Howell Nature Center

Huron River Watershed Council

Crossroads Group of the Sierra Club

Hartland Audubon Nature Club

Huron Valley Audubon Society

Friends of Island Lake State Recreation Area

Friends of Highland Recreation Area

Recycle Livingston

Livingston Land Conservancy

Local area environmental groups sometimes "struggle finding enough people to participate," Lee Burton, the chair of the Crossroads Group of the Sierra Club, said.

"One of the reasons is that people are getting older," Burton said. "When some of these groups started, there was a group of people who said, 'Let's do this,' but eventually members move on, they pass on, and we need younger people."

One way the group has increased participation is by harnessing the power of the internet and promoting events on a Meetup.com page.

"The evidence I can give you that this (cross promotion) is working is when we advertise for other groups, they have bigger attendance," he said. "For example, when we advertised a winter duck outing for Huron Valley Audubon Society, and we just put it on there two or three days before the outing, we doubled the size of their outing because more than 1,400 people (signed up for the Sierra Club group's alerts) were notified."

Each member organization in the coalition will also use their own websites and social media accounts to help promote other organizations in the coalition. There will also be a Facebook page for the coalition at a future date.

"The goal is also to increase awareness by having tables at events and to give people information about all the organizations, including the farmers' markets in Brighton and Howell, and maybe others," Pierce said.

One thing the coalition will not do is take any unified stance on political issues or set an agenda, Burton said.

"When promoting the groups, we're not going to get into political issues, because each group has its own mission and that could be problematic for some of the groups," he said.

Richard Russell, President of Friends of Highland Recreation Area, said there is an important piece of Henry Ford family history in the state recreation area in neighboring Oakland County that local area residents may not be aware of.

The state park holds Haven Hill Estate, which was a home of Henry Ford's only son Edsel Ford and his wife Eleanor.

Russell said being a member of the coalition will help his group spread awareness about efforts to restore and maintain three remaining structures at Haven Hill Estate.

"If people come into the Detroit area for Ford mania, they are interested in Ford activity and go to Greenfield Village, we want them to also come out to Highland and also come out to do rustic camping," Russell said. "We’ve got people from the area who said, 'I didn’t know that place was there, and (the coalition) could help get the word out.'"

Contact Livingston Daily reporter Jennifer Eberbach Timar at 517-548-7148 or at jeberbach@livingstondaily.com. Follow her on Facebook @Jen.Eberbach and Twitter @JenEberbach.